Petition seeks to trim gun sales in Alameda

Paul English was “really affected” by the December 14 shootings at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school that left 20 children and seven adults dead. English, a public health researcher, said he had favored gun control before the killings but had never acted on those beliefs.

“This incident in Connecticut was something that mobilized me to do something else,” English recalled during an interview last week.

The “something else” is an online petition that asks the sole gun-seller in Alameda – Big 5 Sporting Goods – to stop selling semi-automatic rifles. Another semi-automatic rifle – a .223 caliber Bushmaster – was used in the Connecticut slayings and was also reportedly used in the recent shooting of two firefighters in Western New York and another mass shooting in a Colorado movie theater last summer.

“It just does not seem appropriate to go into the sports store to get soccer balls and see semi-automatic (guns),” English said.